You little tease
The Android tablet market is going through growing pains. The Motorola Xoom has not sold in anything like the quantities expected and the user-experience is struggling to even get close to that offered by the iPad, thanks in large part to a lack of Honeycomb-specific apps.
This Catch-22 is explored in a recent analysis of the situation by prominent tech blogger and Instapaper founder Marco Arment. "Developers will rush to Android tablets once a lot of people are buying Android tablets. But hardly anyone will buy them if there's too little compelling software available," he opined.
Maybe they just need better marketing. Another criticism levelled at Honeycomb tablet OEMs is that they've been marketing them in the same ‘speeds and feeds' way that led to the commoditisation of PC. The Apple marketing precedent is to market the lifestyle choice rather than the product itself, and some of the later entrants to the Honeycomb tablet market seem to be giving that a try, albeit in a rather odd way.
Sony released the first in a series of YouTube video clips teasing its impending tablet range, apparently designed to maintain the hype following the April launch. The new vid is deliberately short on detail and substance, but is quite a cool vid.
A few days ago Chinese telco giant Huawei leaked out teaser vid for its yet-to-be-launched tablet that makes the Sony one look prosaic and informative. In the clip below, a passing hunk is so entranced by the site of a young lady using her Huawei tablet that he spills his sauce on her arm.
While we're writing about innovative marketing initiatives, we recently received an email from Sony Ericsson, which has clearly been getting tops from its parent company, telling us about its Xperia Hot Shots campaign, in which SE sponsors some up-and-coming female tennis players, include the UK's Heather Watson.
For some reason SE thought the best way to promote this prior to Wimbledon would be to have Watson play table tennis with Gary Lineker (who seems unable to turn down any commercial opportunities), while suspended 150 feet in the air. Fair enough.
